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Lenovo Delivers SuSE Linux-Based ThinkPads
angryfirelord notes a DesktopLinux article on Lenovo's promise to deliver ThinkPads with pre-installed Novell SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 in the week of January 14. Quoting: "Lenovo will release pre-installed SLED 10 on its Intel Centrino processor-powered ThinkPad T61 and R61 14-inch-wide notebooks. In February, Lenovo's pre-integrated Novell Linux offering will expand to include some Penryn-based ThinkPads. The starting price for this system will be $949, $20 less than the same laptop with Vista Home Premium."
One day we won't need Negroponte's OLOC plan? This looks like the next level up, anyhow.
No, no sig. Really.
ThePromenader
who is "Ubuntu"? chief of a cannibal tribe? tee hee
Good for aeroplanes I suppose, but still not small enough.
Small is good. For me, I prefer carrying 3.5-5" PDAs and 9-12" subnotebooks. And even 12" is already too big. What I realy want is a robust ThinkPad with modern technology at or below 12".
What can you do on a small screen? Well, lots of things. What you lose in screen size you gain it three times in productivity thanks to flexibility in using your machine anywhere you want. I use my PDA (HTC Universal) and my 8.9" Flybook while walking, for example. This means that I am productive at times that other people aren't, which increases my earning power. Many showstopping software bugs were fixed and important emails have been written while I was walking down the street. It also helps me stay fit (and also increase my knowledge, I even read books while walking).
What can you do with a laptop that you can use only on a desk? Not much. And while you use it your spine suffers unless you have a very good ergonomic office. Now imagine being able to work while hiking in nature or while standing in line at the bank. You have no desk in these situations (except by luck, for example I have found a nice place where I go hiking and it has some rocks at the right configuration that they behave just like a desk! but this is rare), and yet with a subnotebook you can work just as well. The associated time savings add up over time and you can soon find that your typical day has not 24 but 32 or 48 hours in it.
Doing this with 15.4" laptops isn't easy (I have tried it, with a ThinkPad!). What mobile nomad technology professionals and other very busy persons need is a small subnotebook, smaller than 12" (a perfect size I think is between 7" and 9"), equipped with the right pointing device controls and other features to allow use while walking or standing (Flybook for example has a nice trackpoint at the correct location and a cord to secure your subnotebook to your arm in case it is about to fall down). PDAs are good for short emails, viewing documents, quickly testing something in Python or quickly SSHing to your server, but they aren't good for serious work (this may change with HTC Shift, however). So what we really need is subnotebooks at the right size to keep them with our hands in front of us while walking. And they should be GNU/Linux-compatible (who wants to work with Windows? Debian lenny with some tweaking is great for me) and have USB ports so that we can connect 3G Internet modems (or incorporated GSM/HSDPA modules like Flybook, but I have found USB ports a bit easier for setting them up in GNU/Linux). That's what technomads want.
The current subnotebook offerings by other manufacturers are not really very robust, and many have various problems with GNU/Linux. A robust GNU/Linux-compatible ThinkPad at small dimensions would be great. How could Lenovo ignore this important market?